Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

In his speech here, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu expressed the problems and expectations of the business world.

Pointing out that the global economy and politics are going through a painful process brought about by increasing uncertainties, Hisarcıklıoğlu noted the following:

“Power structuring is being reshaped around the world. In this changing and transforming environment, Türkiye is actively participating under your leadership. In Karabakh, Libya, Syria, Syria, Gaza, Pakistan, and the gathering of Ukraine and Russia in İstanbul, Türkiye’s growing global weight is clearly visible. On behalf of myself and my community, we extend our sincerest gratitude to you for giving us the self-confidence that befits the ancient history of our nation.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized that there have been positive developments in the recent period and he hopes that the Terror Free Türkiye process will also end in good, and continued as follows:

“Coming from the business world, we know that you are well aware of all the issues related to our community and the economy. Therefore, under your leadership, we hope to rekindle the fire of structural reforms in the economy. During both your Prime Ministry and Presidency, many regulations were put into effect that facilitated the business and investment environment and reduced the burdens on us. We express at every opportunity that your solution-oriented approach has given great morale to our business world.”

Stating that they consider it very important and necessary for Türkiye to get rid of high inflation, Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out that when inflation rises, they lose their competitiveness, cannot manage costs and cannot make their budgets, and said, “We believe that you will bring Türkiye back to low inflation and stable growth.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the Turkish private sector carried the country to historical record levels in production volume, employment and exports last year, and expressed the demands of the business world to go further as follows:

“At the moment, the most problematic issue for our entire business world is access to finance. The market is almost locked. We cannot even use existing credit limits, let alone additional credit. The contraction in loans and high interest rates are shackles especially for our SMEs. Payments in the market are being disrupted, shopping is decreasing, and as a result, the growth of the economy is slowing down. To overcome these problems, we need to empower our SMEs. We should exempt them from the monthly credit growth limit. We should also exclude commercial credit cards from this credit limit. In this way, we can bring relief to the market. Our labor-intensive sectors are in danger of losing their competitiveness and export markets due to rising input costs. We consider it necessary to provide additional support to labor-intensive sectors, especially textiles and ready-to-wear clothing.”

Stating that the Economy Summit will convene on May 23^rd upon the instruction of President Erdoğan, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “My chamber and commodity exchange presidents, who are the opinion leaders of their regions, will collect the problems experienced in the markets and sectors and convey them to our ministers with their solution proposals. As in previous years, I believe that this Summit will lead to actions that will resolve many economic issues.”

- President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in his speech at the ceremony, said, “We have now become one of the world’s leading players in UAV and UCAV technology, which was once denied to our country on pretexts.”

Erdoğan congratulated the members who completed their 10^th, 20^th and 30^th years under the roof of the Union as a delegate of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye and who were entitled to receive a Certificate of Honor for this reason, and said, “Our 98 brothers who will receive plaques today have not only served TOBB, these brothers have also given their hearts to this country and added vision. They toiled for the welfare, well-being and peace of this nation. They never stopped believing in the strong potential of the Turkish economy. I wish these plaques and certificates, which symbolize loyalty as well as diligence, faith as well as sacrifice, to be auspicious. I convey my gratitude to each and every one of the members of our Union for their contribution to the development, development and growth of our country.”

Stating that the TOBB community has personally witnessed the last quarter century of Türkiye, Erdoğan noted the following:

“You know best where the Turkish economy has come from. After 2002, the political stability that has been consolidated, combined with the skill and dynamism of our private sector, has resulted in a Türkiye that is moving forward in every field today. It is a fact that we have always been in solidarity with you during this journey, which has entered its 23^rd year. We have acted in coordination and together we have put our signature to the success story Türkiye has written in every field of economy, especially in exports. We took a country that could export only 36 billion dollars a year to a country that exports 265 billion dollars a year. We brought the number of visitors from 13 million to 61 million in tourism.

We opened our business world, entrepreneurs and investors to the world markets together with you. Again during this period, we overcame many attacks, troubles and challenges targeting our country, democracy and economy together. In other words, whatever we have done in 23 years, we have done it together, we have achieved it together. Look, today TOBB has nearly 2 million members. These members realize 99 percent of our country’s exports. 71 percent of registered employment is under your umbrella. You represent production, investment, export and employment in this country. Based on this fact, we have attached great importance to coming together with you in all general assemblies of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye. Together with our ministers, we have been with you again in TOBB Türkiye Economy Councils.”

- “We succeeded in realizing the automobile of the era”

Reminding that they have realized many issues requested from them by the business world through TOBB and chambers and commodity exchanges, Erdoğan said, “Just as we have stood by you, you, as the TOBB family, have never left us alone in our struggle to serve our country and nation.”

Reminding that the call he made at the 2017 TOBB General Assembly was responded to, President Erdoğan said, “You ensured the realization of TOGG, Türkiye’s automobile. You gave the best answer to those who said ‘Türkiye cannot build a car’, to those who said ‘they do not produce cars here, they bring them from abroad’, to those who said ‘where is the factory for this’ with tens of thousands of TOGGs decorating our roads. 60 years ago, our Revolution Automobile Project was sabotaged for trivial reasons, but we succeeded in realizing the automobile of the era.”

- Trade Minister Ömer Bolat

Trade Minister Ömer Bolat also stated that they have always stood by exporters at the point of export incentives and said, “Our exports of goods and services have increased 7.7 times in the last 22 years and we have become a country that earns 377 billion dollars in foreign currency annually.”

Speaking at the ceremony, Bolat pointed out that as a ministry, they work in line with the goals of their government and said, “We are working with all our strength to realize our goals within the framework of the vision of ‘Türkiye’s Century’ drawn for us by our President. As members of the government and relevant public administrators, we are working hard day and night for the development, growth, increase in employment, social welfare and purchasing power of our people within the framework of sustainable export growth, foreign trade balance, current account balance, a fair, competitive and stable domestic trade environment, effective, fast and safe customs understanding.”

Providing information on the number of companies and tradesmen in the country, Bolat said, “The number of companies affiliated to TOBB increased from 1 million to approximately 2 million 350,000. The number of our tradesmen has also increased by a similar increase to nearly 2.3 million.”

Following the speeches, plaques were presented to the employees by protocol members.